It's been crappy here also. We had wave 2 of the 30th figs here at both Walmart and Target in December but then Target stopped being restocked and Walmart, after having empty pegs for a few weeks, removed them.

One case of wave 4 showed up at Walmart while they didn't have pegs for them, and quickly sold through. Target never stocked wave 3 even though they had empty pegs.

Walmart reset in late January and added 4 pegs back in but didn't stock anything. Target stocked 1 case of wave 4 on Valentine's Day and then again Tuesday. Walmart has reset again, for the Avengers stock, and increased to 8 pegs, all empty.

So, it's been ******. I really have no explanation for all the empty pegs in town and why neither store had any stock for 2 to 3 months. All I can think of is that Hasbro reduced production, possibly in anticipation of the movie line, or they royally screwed something up on the manufacturing end. After hearing about the troubles Hasbro had on the Transformers line I'm wondering if maybe they did have some problems and we just don't know about it. It would be awesome to corner one of the Joe team members from Hasbro and ask, but you never know what kind of answer you might get.

I guess it's also possible that the retailers didn't order anything from Hasbro, for various reasons, but I find that harder to believe because why would a retailer want empty peg space in their toy aisle during the Christmas shopping season? For that reason alone, it seems like wave 3 and 4 should have been out in force.

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I don't shop at TRU much nor WM -since they suck ass and stopped carrying Joes a year or two back. I've heard reports of some Targets stocking new stuff, but I'm still seeing old Novemberish Renegade stuff at my local stores personally.

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And yet, I keep going to stores with eight pegs for Joes and only two figures on them. BTW, seriously, if anyone's got a loose ROC Bench Press, I'm totally in the market for one. Dude's like $50 on ebay, which confounds me. Got an Airtight or good cash.

Yeah, I don't understand the Benchpress market prices either. I remember seeing that dude forever at TRU and kept passing, but when I finally decided to snag him, gone. And then prices went nuts.

There are some other ROC prices that are high that I can't really explain, because it was only the later waves that had trouble getting into retail that were harder to find. But there are some earlier wave stuff that's also doing odd things on eBay. Like General Hawk figures for $20+?

The Spirit and Quick Kick figures also went nuts for a while but now that they've been popping up at Ross I see the prices have come down some. I see some sets of those two in completed auctions for under $20. They stuck around at the two TRU stores I go to the most, but they definitely sold better than some of the ROC exclusives. And while I think most people liked Spirit, I remember hearing some grumbling over Quick Kick.

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I remember ample opportunity to get one about a year ago, but couldn't fathom paying $15 plus shipping for an ROC figure. Maybe prices will cool after the movie. Reminds me that I better get those Alpha wave 3 vehicles before they go nuts too, but this is the wrong thread for that.

I used my Bench Press figure for a custom of Slaughter for my son, as nice reader at Yakface helped me out and got me a Brawl Slaughter head so I could give my son a Slaughter for Christmas - drilled a tad on the Sarge's head, and it fit on Bench Press perfecty. He plays with it all the time... I'm kinda living my Joe collecting through him now. Which is a helluva lotta fun.

Also - success! I went by a Wal-Mart today that is a bit off the beaten path, and they had put out a case of new Joes... I bought the following for my son:

- Sci-Fi- Lifeline- Airtight- Techo- Viper- Zombie Viper

I'll give him Lifeline and Airtight tonight as a surprise. The others will be for some other occassion. He has one Zombie Viper that I got off ebay a couple months back. He named the one he has, Leech... pretends he's Cobra Commander's pet. Lol.

They had a couple other new figures that I passed on, money is a bit tight right now:

- Ripcord- Cobra Trooper (Renegades)

It's also nice to pay $6.97 for these at Wal-Mart rather than the $8.99 tag at Target, and $9.99 price at TRU.

Found a lone techno viper today at a wal mart that hasnt stocked GI joes since November of last year, and he was teh only figure on teh pegs. This had to be a return right?I cant imagine people leaving such a cool army builder and taking EVERYTHING else from this wave, its usually ripcord and tunnelrat and scarlet that are left

Yeah, I'd be surprised if a whole case got bought but an army builder was left. Could have been a return or could have been left over from the last time a case came in? Possibly stashed somewhere or lost in the back room during a reset or something. But you're right, I'd expect to see a Ripcord or Tunnel Rat left over first.

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I bought the last 3 Renegade figs that have been sitting at my local Target since Oct/Nov so hoping that means they'll maybe order a case now before this line goes bye bye. A buddy of mine did score a SS at a TRU yesterday so that gives me hope....

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I was reading over on the Tank where, apparently, ToysRUs.com mislabled a Storm Shadow figure for sale, it was the Renegades version but they listed it as an earlier POC version, and a buch of guys ordered during the BOGOHO sale and got the Renegades version cheap.

I was really surprised when a case of the SS wave showed up at Target a couple of weeks ago. I have to believe there are more out there in the distribution centers somewhere waiting to go out. But I don't know why they aren't. My Walmart has been sitting on 8 empty Joe pegs for well over a month...they got put up when the aisle reset for the Avengers toys. Where are the figures for them? My Target just got the 1 case of the SS wave but prior to that had wave 4 maybe 3 times. It's hard to believe that Target doesn't have more cases of W3 sitting somewhere in the pipeline.

But Hasbro...man, they have some serious problems right now. With all the issues on GI Joe distribution at retail, the cancelled Transformers figures, the missed releases on the Walmart Clone Wars 2-packs and the Mandalorian Gunship from last year, just to name a few... They're falling apart over there. I don't know if it's China manufacturing ******* with them or the teams are losing their ability to get **** done...or if retail has completely bailed on them. Something is definitely wrong, though.

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